With Dr. Anwah Nagiah, founder of Palestine Museum in Cape Town. When 9-story center is finished it will include a library, mosque, chapel, synagogue, human rights clinic and facilities for activists. What does the front of building remind you of? #IsraeliApartheidWeekpic.twitter.com/IElWiyxBdh

Young representatives of the advocacy organization Equal Education, some of whom had met the Palestinian teenager, asked me what would happen to her next. (On Wednesday, Ahed was sentenced to eight months in prison by an Israeli military tribunal for slapping and shoving an occupation soldier last December.)

I was invited on to the national broadcaster SABC’s prime time news for an interview about Israeli Apartheid Week:

Presidential support

On my final day in the country, Kgalema Motlanthe, South Africa’s former president, deputy president and secretary general of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), received me to talk about the urgent need for greater international solidarity with Palestine.

Motlanthe also posed for photos with BDS South Africa organizers – and with the “Boycott Israel” tote bag they gave him as a gift.

The meeting was a measure of Motlanthe’s ongoing concern for justice in Palestine; last year he launched Israeli Apartheid Week with a speech suggesting that the best way forward would be a “democratic one-state solution.”

In my meeting with Motlanthe, I told him many Palestinians would be encouraged to hear him pursue this line of thinking.

Moment of hope

There is no doubt that popular support for Palestine is strong in South Africa.

But the question I heard from many lips is whether this support will be translated into effective action from the ANC government.

Many people I spoke to felt that South Africans are living through a moment of optimism following a lost decade under the corrupt rule of Jacob Zuma.

This period saw the erosion of South Africa’s hard-won institutions and little progress in narrowing the shocking economic inequalities that persist a quarter century after the end of political apartheid.

Zuma’s successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, is talked about as someone likely to administer the country more competently, and to restore the rule of law.

Public expectations are sky high, but few people I spoke to expect Ramaphosa to launch radical redistributive policies or to rock the boat with international capital, whose support he will see as vital to deliver even modest economic reforms.

A former minister told me that Ramaphosa is likely to be more skilful as a politician, verbally appeasing demands for stronger support for Palestinians.

The ANC has faced a challenge from the left-wing opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters, which has called for radical land redistribution at home and for cutting ties with “apartheid Israel” abroad.

The EFF met with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) & agreed to disagree on the Palestinian question. The EFF stands with the people of Palestine & will never betray their struggles, and that is the categorical message we communicated to the SAJBD. #FreePalestine!

Some young activists I spoke to see the EFF’s positions as more representative of their views.

But the bottom line is that the ANC is not likely to lose power any time soon, including at next year’s general election, and the extent to which the new Ramaphosa government will be prepared to translate fine words about Palestine into real action depends on continued pressure from below.

These include the ANC’s resolution to downgrade diplomatic ties with Israel. Yet this decision still has to be implemented.

African solidarity

In January, South Africa’s representative told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that “Israel is the only state in the world that can be called an apartheid state.”

Some of my conversations in South Africa revolved around whether this statement truly represented a shift in the government’s position or was merely a maverick departure by an individual official.

Doubts can now be put to rest: This week, an even more senior representative, South Africa’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, repeatedly emphasized in an address to the UN Human Rights Council how Israel’s gross violations of Palestinian rights are “akin to apartheid.”

“For a long time, apartheid was at war with African children,” the ambassador stated. “This is what is happening in Palestine.”

South Africa’s statement came as the 54-member group of African states issued a strong joint condemnation of Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights, and reaffirmed their support for “the historic fight of the Palestinian people to realize the right to freedom and self-determination as well as the right to live in peace and justice.”

The AfroPal Forum, a group that advocates for Palestinian rights across the continent, observed: “While North African countries have typically been vocal on the Palestinian issue, sub-Saharan countries are now speaking out more strongly against Israeli violations of human rights, and US-Israeli attempts to change the status quo of Jerusalem.”

It is good to see that Israeli Apartheid Week is also being marked in Kenya.

Lionel Davis says international solidarity and pressure was key to ending torture and other abuses against political prisoners like him on Robben Island. As he spoke I kept thinking of Ahed Tamimi. #IsraeliApartheidWeek. pic.twitter.com/feMdhia9Jd

As comrades in South Africa reminded me often, their country would not be free today without effective international solidarity and pressure. Yet a generation after South Africa’s apartheid regime ended, Palestinians remain in bondage.

The enduring lesson from South Africa is that Israel will only be willing to respect Palestinian rights when it is made to pay a much higher price for its crimes through international isolation.

As I told my hosts, I hope that my next visit to South Africa will not be to mark another Israeli Apartheid Week but to celebrate with them Palestine’s freedom.

After this visit, I am more optimistic than ever that South Africa’s people can push their government to rise to the urgent challenge of effective solidarity and hasten the end of Israeli apartheid.

Did Lionel Davis ever physically attack and slap a soldier doing his duty in the face?
Did Lionel Davis ever advocate genocide? Did Lionel Davis ever have a family member who murdered innocent people and then defend him and celebrate his release?
The comparison is wrong and shameful.

Acts of sabotage, by the way, are part of ARMED resistance. Lionel Davis used bombs, not slaps. As did Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani, Joe Slovo, and many, many other South African heroes. When zionists try to suggest that South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle was 'peaceful' and 'if only Palestinians can learn from Nelson Mandela', they profoundly insult Mandela and all our freedom fighters - those who are alive and those who gave their blood and their lives for our struggle. In fact, Palestinians have not yet learnt from our soldiers like Lionel Davis what 'sabotage' means.

As a former prisoner of a racist state, he may have some insights to offer on the current embodiment of that tradition. You might be surprised at how well-informed he is regarding Israel and the duty to resist an apartheid regime. Get in touch with the man. Ask him.

"...After this visit, I am more optimistic than ever that South Africa’s people can push their government
to rise to the urgent challenge of effective solidarity and hasten the end of Israeli apartheid."
Ali Abunimah (above)

In these dark days where death is so often the consensus "answer", it seems that such optimism
is unwarranted. Native Americans suffered their massacres and disposessions centuries
ago. Through the landmark works of Francis Jennings and Thomas Suarez it is
difficult to see a silver lining.